True resilience and success don’t start with striving harder—they begin by standing firmly in who you are at your best. 

“Happiness precedes success.”
- Caroline Adams Miller

In this episode of Standing Up Strong, Dr. Jillian Coppley speaks with positive psychology pioneer and author Caroline Adams Miller about the science of flourishing, goal setting, and meaningful achievement.
Caroline challenges the myth that success creates happiness, explaining instead that well-being fuels goal attainment and long-term success. Drawing on research and personal experience, she highlights the power of character strengths, supportive relationships, and her concept of ampliship—publicly and intentionally uplifting others, particularly women, as they pursue ambitious goals.
Her best advice: do hard, meaningful things, surround yourself with people who believe in you, and create spaces where everyone can rise together. This conversation reminds us that true happiness and wellbeing are critical to building a community of upstanders.

More about host Jillian Coppley:
Dr. Jillian Coppley is a visionary executive recognized internationally for her expertise in character strengths, wellbeing, and organizational transformation. With deep experience in positive psychology, strategy, and change, she has led large-scale collaborations, built global programs, strategic partnerships, and thriving organizational cultures that empower individuals, teams and organizations to flourish. Her leadership blends strategic vision, research-based innovation, and deep personal care for others —creating environments where people and programs thrive and where meaningful, lasting impact takes root. 
 
This series is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the science of character strengths is integral to our work creating a community of upstanders. 
https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/  
https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity     
    
Our thanks to the Mayerson Family Foundation and the VIA Institute on Character for their support of this series    
https://www.mayersonfoundation.org/      
https://www.viacharacter.org/   
    
Find us on social media    
https://www.facebook.com/CincyHHC/     
https://www.instagram.com/holocaustandhumanity/     
https://www.tiktok.com/@holocaustandhumanity   


Episode Resources
Take the free VIA Character Strengths Survey https://www.viacharacter.org/survey
Caroline Adams Miller’s latest book, "Big Goals"  https://biggoalsbook.com/ 
Caroline Adams Miller’s website: https://www.carolinemiller.com 
Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org

“When we can start to reach for and engage and develop our strengths, those things we're good at and enjoy doing, then it is going to not just energize us a bit more in the face of all those challenges but give us more confidence to try to muddle our way through and get to the other side.” 
- Dr. Michelle McQuaid 

Feeling stretched thin by all the change around you? In this uplifting episode of Standing Up Strong, author and researcher Dr. Michelle McQuaid joins Dr. Jillian Coppley of the VIA Institute on Character —a global leader in the science and practice of character strengths—to reveal how our character strengths can help us rise above stress and “quiet cracking.” Discover how leaning into what makes you strong, paired with a dose of self-compassion, can boost your confidence, build resilience, and help you thrive even when life feels overwhelming. 

Dr. Michelle McQuaid is an award-winning researcher, LinkedIn Top Voice for Mental Health, and honorary fellow at Melbourne University's Centre for Wellbeing Science and her team runs workshops, designs tools, and delivers coaching to help care for well-being, supercharge psychosocial safety, and co-create change in workplaces, schools, and communities around the world. 

Dr. Jillian Coppley is a visionary executive recognized internationally for her expertise in character strengths, wellbeing, and organizational transformation. With deep experience in positive psychology, strategy, and change, she has led large-scale collaborations, built global programs, strategic partnerships, and thriving organizational cultures that empower individuals, teams and organizations to flourish. Her leadership blends strategic vision, research-based innovation, and deep personal care for others —creating environments where people and programs thrive and where meaningful, lasting impact takes root.

Our thanks to the Mayerson Family Foundation and the VIA Institute on Character for their support of this series.  
https://www.mayersonfoundation.org/  
https://www.viacharacter.org/  

This series is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the science of character strengths is integral to our work creating a community of upstanders. 
https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/  
https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity 

Find the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center on social media  
https://www.facebook.com/CincyHHC/  
https://www.instagram.com/holocaustandhumanity/  
https://www.tiktok.com/@holocaustandhumanity  

Find the VIA Institute on Character on social media
https://www.instagram.com/viastrengths/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/via-institute-on-character/

Episode Resources  

Take the Character Strengths survey for free and find out your top strengths 
https://www.viacharacter.org/  

Find out more about Dr. McQuaid and her work 
https://www.michellemcquaid.com/  
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chellemcquaid/

Michelle’s “HEART of change” steps to navigating change in our lives: Honoring feelings, Engaging purposefully, Appreciating strengths, Reaching out, and Taking tiny steps. 
https://www.michellemcquaid.com/research/heart-of-change-insights-report/

Follow Dr. Jillian Coppley on LinkedIn for more insights about character strengths and how they can help us thrive 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoppley/